Urinary catheter systems generally include a long, thin, flexible tube (the urinary catheter) that is inserted into the urethra, past the trigone muscle and into the bladder to withdraw urine from the bladder. Urine flows through the catheter and is collected, e.g., in a urine collection bag. Once urine flow stops, or if the bag is filled, the catheter is removed from the bladder. The catheter is generally lubricated to facilitate insertion. In a closed catheter system, the lubricated catheter is supplied inside the urine collection bag with a urethral introducer tip to prevent human contact/contamination of the catheter as it is inserted into the urethra. The introducer tip is inserted into the patient's urethra, and the catheter is advanced out of the bag by sliding the catheter through the bag using the following procedure. Following insertion of the introducer tip, the user stabilizes the introducer tip with the user's non-dominant hand (i.e., the left hand if the user is right-handed). Next, using his dominant hand, the user holds the catheter through the bag, with his thumb and index finger, just behind the introducer tip, and advances the catheter slowly into the urethra. The catheter is advanced by the user pinching the catheter with his non-dominant hand, while using his dominant hand to retract the bag without retracting the catheter out of the urethra. The user then reduces the finger pressure applied by the non-dominant hand, and repeats the preceding step a number of times until the catheter has been advanced into the bladder and urine is flowing into the bag.
There is a tendency, during this procedure, for the catheter to slip back into the bag as the user is trying to advance it, causing the user discomfort and frustration. This is in part due to the difficulty of gripping the lubricated catheter through the bag material. Many users of urinary catheters have compromised finger strength, due to spinal cord injuries, which only exacerbates the gripping problem. Also, if the bag is formed of certain materials, moving the bag in this manner may cause a “crinkling” noise that may be embarrassing to the user if the catheter is being used in a public restroom.